The U.S. Is In Trouble If Tech Titans Turned Away From The Pentagon: Bezos

By Sanford Stamey on December 9, 2019

Of late, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Founder and CEO, gave a gloomy outlook for the country if the US’ tech firms decide to not back the Pentagon’s war business. During the annual Reagan National Defense Forum, held in California, Bezos stated, “If tech giants are going to turn their backs from the DoD (Department of Defense), this country is in mess—that just can’t happen. I am aware that these are emotional issues, which is fine. We do not have to agree on each and everything, but this is how we should do it, we must support the DoD. This country is important.” Since Silicon Valley courts a closer association with the Pentagon, tech companies have faced counterattack for pursuing remunerative DoD contracts.

In the past year, Google declared that it was working with the U.S. military to evaluate drone videos by utilizing artificial intelligence. The contentious contract, Project Maven, made thousands of employees disapprove of the initiative. Following the firestorm, Google determined not to renew the agreement after its expiry in March 2019. Loosely referring to the sequence of incidents following Google’s Project Maven, Bezos stated that tech companies must support the U.S. military’s endeavors. He said, “I am aware of the fact that it is complicated but for a strong national defense, we must support that.” Bezos’ statements came in the aftermath of Amazon’s decision to compete with the Pentagon’s cloud-computing deal awarded to Microsoft. In October, the Pentagon said that Microsoft had bagged the JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) cloud contract, which is worth up to $10 Billion and can span for 10 Years.

On a similar note, Amazon stated “unmistakable biasness” in Microsoft’s military cloud agreement. Amazon said it has registered a notice in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims implying a plan to object the Pentagon’s judgment to award Microsoft with a multibillion-dollar deal for cloud computing services. The contract was originally due to be granted in the last year. Referring same, earlier the Wall Street Journal reported about Amazon’s protest plans. The deal amounts to a foremost win for Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella’s direction—who has made cloud services a prime priority.

Sanford’s completion in Robotics course followed by a Degree in Computers was the reason for him to switch to content writing. His love for book and pen has encouraged the writer to explore the content field. The liking towards reading technology-related subjects or engineering the devices is something that is currently proving to be righteous. Though Industry News Daily publication is his first experience, it does not prove to pull him down from providing some of the best of the tech reports for the publication.